"The epicentre of the quake was located on the China-Jammu and Kashmir border, on latitude 35.8 degrees north and longitude 77.3 degrees east," the official said.

People went out of their homes in panic as the tremor hit Srinagar city. Officials said no reports of any damage to life or property have been received from anywhere in the Valley so far.

"I was frightened as the chair in which I was sitting starting rocking. I left the room in panic till the shock waves settled down," 32-year-old businessman Nazir Ahmad said.

A devastating earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale had hit Kashmir in October 2005, killing thousands of people and rendering even larger numbers homeless on both sides of the Line of Control that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan.